Getting On With Things

So I think the only proper way to start off this blog post is with an apology for everyone who has waited for my return to the blogsphere. Between the last post I made and now, things have been a touch hectic. What with a trip to Busan, midterms, extracurricular school work, and everything else in between, any moment of quiet I’ve been lucky enough to find has been met with much needed rest.

But I digress.

What should I talk about first? I guess I should begin with the trip to Busan which I’m sure you already know about since I’ve been telling everyone (and their mother!) about. October 12^th to 21^st sees the Busan International Film Festival, and from the 16^th October, I was in town and ready to binge consume some acclaimed cinema! As would be expected, I was privy to some exclusive screenings of films that I struggle to adequately describe for their brilliance. For most films the cinematography was superb, but then again so was pretty much everything else from the characters to the narrative pacing. When I think about each film the first thing I remember is the emotional quality that each film has, and how it made me feel to have watched it, whether that be nostalgia, excitement, boredom or discomfort.

Some of my favourite films were the simplest ones, and as a self-proclaimed ‘writer’ it was a really nice thing to witness. I’ve always found it tricky to work around writers’ block and a lack of inspiration, so it was quite encouraging to see these simple narratives become such amazing films.

Onwards.

One thing I’ve been up to since the last post was a visit to Noryangjin fish market with my buddy. Think Billingsgate market but with lots of restaurants just upstairs. That’s Noryangjin. While there, we feasted on fish, surprising nobody. My friends had more than I did, as it turns out I don’t much like the texture of sashimi. Also, the pieces were very big. They also indulged in crab and San–nakji, which is ‘live’ octopus eaten raw. I, unfortunately, was not having any of it, especially after mentions of tentacles sticking to teeth and other parts they should not be sticking to. For me, I can think of very few things that sound worse.

We’ve been having some strange weather over here, I’m sure you’ll be super excited to hear. Winter has arrived like a slap in the face, and with it has come snow. It’s not a lot just yet but since it came as early as November, I’m not optimistic for January. We’ve also seen some heavy fog that was nothing short of Stephen King’s The Mist. I genuinely couldn’t see the top of the adjacent building.

One of the questions I get the most from both friend and family alike, is how my education on the Korean language is going. One of the midterms I took somewhat recently was for Korean, and having scored 23 out of a potential 30 points as well as 3/5 and 5/5 of other, smaller, tests, you would expect a certain level of ability with the language. However, I find myself in an infuriating cycle whereby I feel like things are starting to come together, that I have finally managed to grasp some fundamental understanding of grammar, only to move on and add something else to discover that such things aren’t what I’ve understood them to be, and I’m not digesting nearly as much as I thought I was. It’s a frustrating pattern to say the least.

In truth, there are many reasons this blog post took so long to write. I’ve been here now for just over three months and it’s taken some time but some semblance of normality has begun to take hold, and with that comes the struggle to figure out what is noteworthy enough to pen down and talk about for any extended length of time. Also, even though things are getting to be somewhat ordinary, I’ve been finding it a little difficult to try to adapt to my surroundings. Everything has changed from what I am used to (as was expected, I’m not that naïve!) but I didn’t begin to consider how I might have to find out where I fit in again and how to get over petty fears and anxieties I thought I had aged out of. It’s something I’m still trying to figure out, but in the mean time I’m just trying to get on with things.

For the time being, I don’t know what else to keep everyone updated with, so please let me know what you’d like to hear about in my next post and I’ll be sure to include it!

Also, please be sure to leave a comment or drop me a message, I miss you guys back home! And if you haven’t already, do be sure to check my Instagram (seralou95) so you can see some of the things I’ve been getting up to.

Until Next time,

Serena